Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption provides the primary platform for the international community to cooperate and to share experiences in the fight against corruption.
This is precisely the aim of today's event and I would like to thank Kazakhstan for co-organizing it.
For 15 years now, the Convention has served as a springboard for global progress in criminalizing corruption and facilitating the recovery and return of stolen assets.
In many countries it has spurred legislative reforms, helped strengthen institutions and enabled improved cooperation between them.
In its ten years of existence, UNCAC's Implementation Review Mechanism has contributed significantly to this trend, encouraging countries to pursue comprehensive strategies aimed at preventing and curbing corruption, and to better collaborate with each other.
There is today a considerable body of good practices and empirical evidence on what works when it comes to addressing corruption.
Through its work to support the international community to translate the Convention into action, UNODC has gained a privileged view of success factors on the ground.
Inclusive approaches bringing together a wide variety of stakeholders are key.
Involvement of citizens is crucial, as corruption affects them in their daily lives, cutting them off from opportunity.
Creating a sense of ownership over this issue needs to go hand in hand with providing avenues for public participation across the full spectrum of anti-corruption activities, from risk analysis through to monitoring, reporting and advocating for change.
Technology can be leveraged to connect citizens directly to anti-corruption bodies, increase transparency and dissuade potential wrongdoers.
Innovation can be a force multiplier in bringing people together and better involving youth, who can be powerful allies in the fight against corruption.
Using education to build a culture of lawfulness from the ground up is extremely effective, as UNODC's Education for Justice initiative has shown.
Kazakhstan has embraced these approaches in its action against corruption, and I welcome this initiative to showcase and share national experiences.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This is an exciting time for all those working to eradicate corruption.
Significant momentum is being generated by the global push to deliver on the 2030 Agenda on time, with corruption being recognized as an obstacle to achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The world is also engaged in an important process to advance the global anti-corruption agenda, with preparations starting for the first-ever UN General Assembly special session against corruption in 2021.
I hope today's session on sharing experiences will help participants learn from each other and seize the opportunities to make a difference. To all those interested in piloting, adopting and scaling the good practices which will be discussed: UNODC is here to support you. Thank you.